Book Review: The Date of the Muratorian Fragment By John F. Lingelbach

This book seeks to put an end to the debate concerning the date of production of the Muratorian Fragment by applying the second phase of the Inference to the Best Explanation method. The author presents extensive research on the debates, a clear methodology, and his own conclusions on the subject. This is a book mainly about New Testament canons and church authority, but also church history and historiography.

On The Retranslation of the Igbo Missal

This study looks at the translation and the retranslation of the Igbo missal in line with Newmark’s (2001) semantic and communicative theory of translation. The aim is to highlight the factors that necessitated the retranslation, looking at the loopholes of the first translation in comparison with the Latin and English source texts. This study adopts the Newmark’s translation theory which sees translation from language and equivalence perspectives. The data were gathered from both old and new Igbo missals, the Latin missal and from the old English missal. Some persons were also interviewed to see the level of acceptability of the new translation. The study finds out that the first translation of the missal, hinges on communicative translation which focuses on the target language users. The retranslated version, hinges on the semantic translation which focuses on the source text language as requested by the Church authority. The study shows that many have accepted the translation while few are of the opinion that the new translation is not suitable. The paper concludes that the retranslated version is faithful to the source text and that the dangers of loss of meaning and possible incomprehensibility are not visible.

Bishop Innokenty (Nerunovich): Mission Impossible…

The article considers the activity of the second Irkutsk diocesan bishop-Bishop Innokenty (Nerunovich), who headed the diocese in 1733–1747, which received various assessments. It is proved that the initial aspirations of the bishop, characterized by the draft program for the Christianization of the indigenous population of Eastern Siberia, remained largely unfulfilled, including due to conflicts with the local secular authorities. Denounced by the highest church authority, Bishop Innokenty failed or did not want to understand and accept the specifics of Siberian identification, which represents a polyphony of multilingual and diverse peoples, alien norms and traditions of Christianity, the bishop's unwillingness to compromise, disregard for the realities of Siberian reality, and harsh measures against representatives of merchants and clergy led to isolation in local society. It is concluded that the drama of Nerunovich consisted in his unconditional affirmation of traditional Orthodoxy, without taking into account the surrounding mentality, and made the mission of spiritual care and guidance of the East Siberian flock impossible. Along with this, the bishop's work on the Christianization of the non-Russian population left a mark on the history of Siberian Orthodoxy.

The concept of sobornost’ and the problem of church authority in Russian theology late 19th — early 20th centuries

This article is devoted to the problematization of the idea of сhurch authority in Russian theology at the turn of the epochs, which is considered on the basis of the emergence and development of the concept of sobornost’. The reconstruction of the polemical context of A. Khomyakov allows the interpretation of the texts of which the concept of sobornost’ is included in theological thought. It also makes it possible to connect the problem of the authority of hierarchy with the idea of sobornost’ of the Church. In addition to the “Khomyakovsky” context, the author refers to three other authors, considered in chronological order. First, this concerns a collection of articles by Fr. A. Ivantsov-Platonov, in which he interprets the idea of sobornost’ designating it as an ideal characteristic of church structure. Here sobornost’ is associated with conciliar rule, which was not directly suggested by Khomyakov’s concept, and becomes a marker of (un)canonicity. Secondly, the author turns to the spiritual-academic theology at the beginning of the century, in which “sobornost’” is developed at two levels — institutional and mystical. This attempt receives the greatest meaningful development in the texts of Metropolitan Archbishop Antony (Khrapovitsky), who substantiates the authority of the hierarchy through the development of “personalistic” sobornost’ and the idea of the pastoral “compassionate love” for parishioners. Thirdly, the author considers the documents of the 1917–1918 Local Council in the focus of the connection between sobornost’ and church authority. It is concluded that the inclusion of the idea of sobornost’ into the context of academic theology leads to the formulation of the idea of the hierarchy’s authority, which was expressed in the construction of a new image of patriarchal ministry at the Council.

Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Europe (500–1000)

This chapter examines the varieties and methods of Christian conversion in early medieval Europe. Christians made repeated attempts to adjust Christian convictions to the realities of people who practiced a variety of nature religions. Two cultural worlds interacted in a reciprocal process of adding and subtracting, creating and destroying. One way to understand the perspective of missionaries and the conundrum they faced is to think in terms of a sliding scale, varying in time and place; some aspects of pre-Christian beliefs were deemed incompatible whereas other pre-Christian rituals were accepted by absorption and adoption. At the bare minimum, conversion meant a transfer of loyalty or allegiance, confirmed by baptism. If there was rudimentary instruction, conversion meant familiarity with the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer and the acceptance of church authority. Methods of conversion varied, from “words” (proclamation of the word) to “deeds” (conversion through miracles and profaning paganism).

Utter Pandemonium: Devil-Narratives in the First Edition of the Grimms' Fairy Tales

This paper examines how depictions of the devil in the first edition of the Grimm Brothers’ Folk and Fairy Tales function to mitigate the spiritual anxieties which arose from the decentralization of religious authority in post-Reformation Germany. It centres upon three tales: “The Devil and his Grandmother”, “the Devil with the Three Golden Hairs”, and “The Blacksmith and the Devil”. Beginning with a brief overview of the religious climate of post-Reformation Germany and the function of devil’s-pact narratives during the Medieval period, it proceeds to examine how the Grimm tales subvert the moralizing function of their Medieval precursors. It illustrates how the tales use absurd humour to humanize the devil, making him an object of mockery rather than terror. From there, it demonstrates that, in all three tales, the protagonists’ dealing with the devil does not place their souls in jeopardy, disrupting the orthodox potential of the devil-narrative by allowing the protagonists to attain earthly rewards without the supposedly requisite spiritual punishment. Moreover, it observes that almost every instance of reward without punishment is situated within a broader narrative of the protagonists’ securing social advancement despite an oppressive social structure. Having illustrated these features, it posits that the tales’ valourization of wit and resourcefulness over moral virtue serves to both reflect and manage the existential uncertainty of a society which had rejected church authority but not religion itself. It concludes by suggesting that these tales’ depictions of the human-devil relationship offer a fascinating addition to the Miltonic and Faustian traditions.